So what has that to do with learning the guitar? I often feel that I'm making no progress, particularly last year when life seriously got in the way. Looking back at my most recent blog posts (over 6 months ago! No way! ) I see that I have work to do to relearn what I was working on. This is, to say the least, dispiriting. Now I'm easing back into regular practice, the goals I had set myself (grade 7 in a year or so) seem insurmountable. I know that goal setting (even small goals for each practice session) are the way to make progress, but concentrating on those solely seems to have taken the pleasure out of just being able to make music, which I still love.
So I'm going to start the new year (2020, what a lovely symmetrical year) by taking a leaf out of my dog's book I'm going to work at setting reasonable goals, but I'm also going to stop and metaphorically "smell the roses." I'm going to take time to truly appreciate modest improvements, to enjoy my ability to play easy pieces, and I'm not going to let the "big picture" take the fun out of everyday guitar playing. I may never catch the squirrels either, but I'm going to have an unreasonable amount of fun trying!
Happy New Year to all in 2020!
(And yes of course, I have New Year's guitar resolutions, but those will have to wait for another BLOG post :))
